A drive to anywhere through any main intersection on Île-Perrot over the past two weekends may have found you rolling down the window to make a cash donation.

Maybe you tried to ignore the friendly firefighters presenting buckets and boots in hopes of gathering some loose change on behalf of the needy? With flashing lights and parked fire trucks stopping traffic in all directions at the four corners of Don-Quichotte and Grand Blvd. and Cardinal-Léger and Fifth Ave, it would have been virtually impossible to avoid. After all, ‘tis the season of giving and requests for donations are a daily and sometimes hourly occurrence no matter you go this time of the year.

For example, in just one hour on a Saturday outing recently, I was asked to make a donation no less than six times. These requests occurred at the aforementioned intersections at car side, again while checking out at the cash in the grocery store and at the entrances and exits of the same grocery store.

I appreciate efforts by local volunteers to raise funds on behalf of those less fortunate and I like to support local organizations that raise funds regularly for good and worthy causes. Locals are accustomed to youth presenting buckets at store exits and entrances in hopes of gathering loose change to prop up their sports teams and activities throughout the seasons here. The thing is, if you are like me, then your pockets are emptied quickly and there is only so much cash to go around.

Let’s face it, there is a lot of competition on a very local level for anything that we can afford to give, never mind increasingly frequent donation requests from large national organizations that do good work in local communities across the country too.

Don’t call me a Grinch, I give, I’ve given, and will continue to donate, as I can. Let me be clear, I’m all in favour of helping out whenever possible and we should thank and recognize those that work tirelessly to raise funds for important causes across the board. That being said, I will admit to suffering donor fatigue this year. Could it be that I am not alone and that similar feelings are very common, but never mentioned, at least not publicly?

Have you ever purposefully avoided a location so as to bypass a donation request and felt guilty about doing so? Certainly there’s no avoiding a donation request by a friendly checkout cashier these days. “Would you like to add a few bucks to your purchase total as a donation to XYZ organization, sir?”

Do you donate and if so, how much, and how often? Does a significant rise in the number of donation requests along with an increased frequency of requests bother you? Do you care how funds are raised?

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